Tyson will be WSSU's
commencement speaker
Saturday's service
is free and open to
the public
SPECIAL TO THE CHBONIPl p
Oscar-nominated actress
Cicely Tyson will deliver the
address for Winston-Salem
State University's 116th
Spring Commencement at the
Lawrence Joel Veterans
Memorial Coliseum on
Saturday, May 10, at 9:45
a.m. The ceremony is free and
open to the public.
Tyson was raised in
Harlem, New York by devout
ly religious parents from the
Caribbean island of Nevis.
She was discovered by a fash
ion editor at Ebony magazine
and, with her stunning looks,
she quickly rose to the top of
the . modeling industry.
Modeling eventually led to
acting.
Tyson made her stage
debut in a Harlem YMCA pro
duction of "Dark of the
Moon" in the 1950s. By 1957,
she began acting in Off
Broadway productions. Tyson
got her first real break in
1963, playing a secretary to
George C. Scott on the TV
series "East Side/West Side."
In 1966, Tyson signed on
with the daytime soap "The
Guiding Light." That same
'year, she made her credited
screen debut jarring opposite
Sammy Davis Jr. in the drama
"A Man Called Adam." More
film, television, and stage
work followed, but Tyson did
not truly become a star until
her Oscar-nominated perform
ance in the Depression-era
drama "Sounder" in 1972.
Tyson next hid her good
looks beneath layers of old
age makeup to convincingly
portray a 110-year-old former
slave who tells her extraordi
nary life story in "The
Autobiography of Miss Jane
Pittman" in 1974. She was the
first African- American actress
to win an Emmy award for
PRNewsFoto
Cicely Tyson honors the late Rosa Parks at an event last year .
Outstanding Lead Actress in a
Television Movie for her. per-,
formance.
Tyson subsequently had
great success on television,
particularly with her role in
the legendary miniseries
"Roots" (1977) and her work
in "The Women of Brewster
Place" in 1989.
Tyson's commitment to
the arts extends beyond tele
vision, movies, and the stage.
She co-founded the Dance
Theatre of Harlem with
renowned dancer and chore
ographer Arthur Mitchell. The
Cicely Tyson High School of
Performing and Fine Arts,
. named in her honor, is located
in East Orange, NJ. Tyson
lives in Atlanta.
Alcholism
from page X7 7 r
Using a newly emerging
tool to study proteins, called
antibody microarray analyses,
Cu and colleagues are able to
measure levels of more than
500 different proteins in tis
sue samples. In a pilot study,
they noted that beta-catenin
was increased in alcoholics,
so they studied it in more
detail. In the current study,
they evaluated levels of 17
proteins associated with the
catenin signaling pathway.
"This is a powerful tool
for examining the abundance
of large numbers of proteins
simultaneously," said Gu, an
assistant professor of neurobi
ology and anatomy.
He cautioned that more
research is needed before sci
entists can use the informa
tion to develop a potential
treatment. He said a next step
is to study animals to deter
mine exactly when levels of
beta-catenin increase.
"If the change happens
early, it may explain how the
brain adapts and could be a
potential treatment target," he
said. "If it shows up later, it
could be from the toxic effects
of alcohol. We need to further
define its role."
The researchers studied
postmortem brain tissue sam
ples from 14 male chronic
alcoholics and 14 age
matched male individuals
with no history of alcohol
abuse. The samples were from
the superior frontal cortex, an
area of the brain associated
with alcohol abuse that is a
part of the brain pathway that
involves feelings of desire
and reward.
HIV
firm page A7
cers has any postdoctoral
training in any area, said
Hoffman, who is also a
research associate professor
in the School of Medicine's
department of medicine.
With the help
of UNC and fund- ~
ing from the
G i 1 e a d
Foundation, two
"promising young
physicians from
the Malawi
College of
Medicine in
Blantyre ,
Malawi's largest
city, will undergo 1
three years of
postdoctoral train
ing in internal medicine at the
University of Cape Town in
South Africa. This w?U better
equip them to combat
Malawi's HIV epidemic,
which affects 14 percent of
the population.
Dr. Cecelia Kanyama, one
of the UNC Project's medical
officers, has been selected to
be the first of these trainees.
Kanyama, the ninth child of
two school teachers, earned
Hoffman
scholarships to study in
Canada and Australia and then
returned to Malawi to attend
medical school. After her
postdoctoral training in South
Africa, she will return to
Malawi again. "We practice
medicine in the most difficult
settings," Kanyama said.
"Most of my classmates left
for developed
^ | countries, but I
remain to serve the
nation." UNC con
ducts global health
activities in more
than 50 countries,
and recently estab
lished the Institute
for Global Health
and Infectious
Diseases to unite
and strengthen
these endeavors
across the campus
and around the globe.
Carolina's work in Malawi is
just one example of UNC's
mission to increase its global
reach in research, teaching
and service.
The Gilead Foundation is
a non-profit organization that
seeks to improve the health
and well-being of underserved
communities around the
world.
Abbott
from page XI
sonally," she related.
"There were many times when
I felt left out, I felt
demeaned
Yet, Abbott dug her heels
in and resolved to make the
new job work.
"I was not going to go
backwards; I was not going to
give up," she related. "I did
n't let race relations stand in
the way of anything 1 wanted
to do."
Abbott, a native of Ruffin,
NC and one of seven children,
says she -went into nursing
because, "I didn't want to be a
teacher - most of my family is
in education."
It wasn't long however,
until she fell^n love with the
profession. f \
"When 1 first came here, f
was so impressed - I saw
everybody in the operating
room working together as a
team, and I wanted to be a
part of that," she recalled. "I
enjoyed it ... I would always
volunteer for the most chal
lenging jobs, despite what
was going on around me."
Hard at work within the
hospital's walls, Abbott says
she and the other nurses
worked side by side, as
equals. Beyond the OR doors
was another story.
"I remember getting
stopped by police officers
wanting to know what we
were doing on this side of
town," she said of herself and
then roommate Phylis
Roberts, an African American
nurse she met at Kate B.
Reynolds Hospital School of
Nursing.
For a long time, Abbott
says she was the only black
nurse in the OR, and one of a
precious few within the entire
hospital.
"I looked around and there
was nobody that looked like
me," she related. "Once I
began to see other, black RN's
working here, it was quite a
relief to me."
As the years passed by,
Abbott's hard work began to
pay off. Ker first major
achievement was landing a
coveted spot on the open heart
surgery team just four years
into her career.
"At first they wouldn't let
me near the open heart room,"
she said. "Back then, it was a
novelty."
From there, Abbott contin
ued to climb in her career, set
tling finally at the position
she will retire from in June,
director of the Surgical
Services Academy.
"I think I owe it to my par
ents, especially my daddy
because he was the epitome of
Martin Luther King," she said
of her perseverance. "It was
instilled in us to be at the top
of every list there was - every
good list."
A lot has changed since
she began her career more
than 40 years ago. Abbot says.
"This place has grown
from a hospital on Hawthorne
Hill to a mega organization...
I have seen us (black nurses)
go from not being recognized
to recognition for all of our
accomplishments," she said,
citing several prominent
national nurses' organizations
that are led by black women.
Upon her retirement,
Abbott says she hopes to for
tify the next generation of
African American nurses,
imparting the wisdom of all
her experience.
"I'm anxious to be a role
model for black, American
youth," she said "I want to
be able to help somebody and
share a part of my knowledge
with other yoifag nurses, I'm
hoping that my life' here has
been a benchmark for them to
be able to live up to and sur
pass."
The Chronicle
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